joining me today, emmy darling msnbc political analyst and national affairs editor for new york magazine, john heilemann. the lovely rana fa ru har of "time" magazine and the host of totally bias, the person who is much, much funnier than me all the time, [ inaudible ]. trial by water. it's stumping in the rain is the true test, the test of a true contender. >> not letting a little rain chase us away. >> ladies, i do apologize for your hair dos getting messed up. >> then mitt romney has his game on. addressing a crowd of screaming virginia voters yesterday, amidst a downpour. >> people wonder why it is i'm so confidence we're going to win. i'm confident because i see you here on a day like this, this is unbelievable. thank you so much.

>> he does have a rain coat on. what of the storm within the romney ranks. according to politico a shakeup in the romney campaign has created a stronger weather mitt. the candidate's family prevailed on mitt romney and the campaign operation to shake things up dramatically according to campaign insiders. the family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the gop nominee. now nearly a week after america first witnessed the onstage etch a sketch the campaign is moving on to phase two, pretending it never happened. >> it seems pretty clear that their new strategy is basically call us liars. >> these attacks calling mitt romney a liar, that's not an elevated debate. just calling people a liar is not i think appropriate for a presidential campaign. >> meanwhile, former new york mayor rudy giuliani suggested romney hasn't moved to the middle just showing the real mitt. >> i don't think he's moving to the center. i think he's always been where he is. it's a question of what you

emphasize. >> last night at a fund-raiser in san francisco, president obama hammered governor romney on his shape shifting. >> a few nights ago, suddenly a guy pretending to be mitt romney stood on a stage next to me and said he's changing his plan. he's just going to pretend it doesn't exist. what $5 trillion tax cut? what was being presented wasn't leadership. that's salesmanship. >> when the storm clouds clear, which romney will voters remember? the bone dry severe conservative or the misty massachusetts moderate? the paradox of the mittens, a multi volume extravaganza continues. john heilemann, what do we make, what do you specifically make, of this politico inside dope that says ann and tagg romney

have been instrumental in this recalibrated mitt romney? >> i never want to take exception that anybody mike allen and jim vandehei write but maybe there's a straining to find a more biz zanty explanation than is necessarily the case. to question that ann romney was unhawpe with what was happening to her husband as any reasonable wife would be, given the way he was being portrayed and allowing people to portray himself. there's, you know, losing campaign, which the romney campaign was until the debate in denver, there's always a lot of second guessing and it started early in this campaign. she clearly has made her feelings known in a very direct way. the part of the story about tagg romney's involvement which is that he's playing this much bigger role in the campaign, i'm a little more dubious about that on the basis of some of my reporting but i think there's no question that his family has been much more involved in

general over the course of the last month than it had been for the last year and a half. >> so this rumor that stu stevens has been elevated to the sidelines poppy cook. >> i'm comfounded of references of stu stevens because i don't know who that is. but yes, no in terms of strategy, there's like when you move to a general election you get a whole bunch of -- that's a bigger campaign. so stuart was doing a lot of stuff before the general election. he's doing less stuff, but not so much he's been relegated to something as there is a lot more to do and he's doing the things he's good at. >> let's talk about the new and improved and wetter mitt romney that we saw yesterday on stage. i will say, you know, president obama that moment when he's in the downpour his shirt sleeves are wet, wiping his face away, the dram my tus persona on the stage, romney in the downpour, swagger is no the a word we

often use with mitt romney but it was the sort of boldest, most confident romney we've seen in a long time. >> which presidential candidate looks better wet. i'm glad to finally get to those independent voters who are like -- >> what is your answer to this. >> obama. >> by a mile. >> like a wet t-shirt contest. surprised it wasn't in slow mo, didn't do this thing with his hair. >> the collar alone, no, not good. >> i will say look, we've seen a change in mitt romney's general personage on the national stage and it was as far as mitt romney moments go, i thought he looked pretty strong out there. >> he did preside. but we're judging him on a weak curve of humanity, doesn't seem as robotic as had he used to be, but which is not actually human. >> the rain coat personifies a problem which is we still don't know who he is. not taken off the rain coat. the facts on the ground are the same. we don't know what his policies are, foreign policy in

particular, economic policies. >> let's talk about the foreign policy thing. a wide range of reactions to the foreign policy speech that mitt romney gave yesterday. madeleine albright did not have much of anything to say -- plenty to say about it but didn't grade it to be a-level work let's hear what she had to say on a conference call yesterday -- i think we have that. >> probably a speech that to those that are not totally into foreign policy sounds pretty good, but i think it is really full of platitudes and free of substance. some of the facts, though, are just dead wrong. >> so, madeleine albright not exactly saying this was the greatest foreign policy speech ever. do you think voters -- what did you make of it and do you think voters are paying attention to foreign policy? >> i think they're starting to. i think they're going to certainly in the next -- the next debate at the end of the month. i think that it was -- lacking in nuance and that's a real problem because the world is very nuanced. we've moved from a kind of

simplistic u.s. is the sort of soul super power world, incredibly multi polar, just in the middle east, and i think you've seen romney already drop the ball there. there is many kinds of islam as countries that it's practiced in at least. you have to understand that to be a good leader on foreign policy. >> and also john, the question, actually "the washington post" had it pretty strong -- some pretty strong words for the president and his administration, the editorial board writing t-- saying the door is open for mitt romney to make some points but he didn't necessarily walk through it, although it seems like the romney team thinks this was a good enough speech they're going to do more like it on different subjects. >> i think they're focused on -- there's two different issues here. one that's substance and one

style and politics. on the substance, there's not that much difference between romney and obama. part of the problem romney has had it's hard for him to criticize what obama's foreign policy is which has been a conservative foreign policy and there's not that much daylight between them. i think the romney campaign is happy on two levels. they're happy because they saw an energetic confident mitt romney performing in a way that i don't -- not the new mitt but looked good yesterday, relatively speaking. and on top of that, this notion of the campaign had gotten into single track place of obama sucks obama sucks but had not done the very good job of presenting him as a credible alternative, starting with the debate looked like a more credible alternative and by rolling out a bunch of series based on substance, regardless of what we say about the particular of substance, but the fact that he's rolling out individual policies specific things, i wonder why -- to me it took them too long. should have been doing this

earlier. i think they're happy to be in the mode now where they think that people are willing to listen to him on substance in a way that they weren't a week ago. >> i would add, though, i think sutley and words matter, dealing with the middle east. i think people there are listening carefully and when you come out saying we're america, we're tough, you've got to toe our line it doesn't help the situation and it's a different world now. you know our foreign aid is small compared to what china can do in one energy deal. it's a different world and you need to reflect that. >> you know, two obama campaign reports come out. john ward a piece in "the huffington post" today and talks about how the campaign has been caught off guard by the new mitt. he writes --

so does this mean -- i mean that's a pretty strong statement right there. i mean has the nightmarish portrait been torn up? >> no. i think we're over it. romney had one good day. he had one good debate and obama had one debate. we know obama can do better. and romney is going to -- that -- romney this is a pretend romney we're looking at now. >> let me ask you from the sort of dichotomy, the two options voters are being presented with, mitt romney has these draconian policies and the other is he's a flip flopper, which do you think is a better one to run on this point, the obama campaign? >> the obama campaign is th? i think the draconian policies -- i think you can do both. i think romney is doing both and romney -- watching him right now is watching him go through the different phases of romney, 509s shades of romney shall we say. >> that's exactly what they have

thought. so people have talked about this a lot. the notion of they were kind of a fork in the road in the spring. do we want to run against him as a flip flopping phony or run against -- coreless, their pitch before, or do we want to cast him as a right wing radical. they seemed to and did make a decision to do right wing radical and one on throughout. i talked about david plouffe about this in may and he said we're going do both when we have to. we're going to say mitt romney there he goes trying to flip flop, coreless a phony, but not forget where he actually is, and then this is -- we're going to keep trying to pin him back to these positions he's taken. i think they have been horrible since the debate, the obama campaign. they are -- jon ward understates the degree to which they are knocked off guard and they are flailing right now and the stuff they're saying, the big bird ad, all of it -- >> oh john, you just teed up the next block beautifully. >> let's talk about how horrible

the big bird ad is. >> we're going to be talking about that in the next block. a poll pandemic is failing the chattering classes. who's up, down, sitting pretty. we'll get to the state of the race next on "now." i'm only in my 60's...

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i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> bernie madoff, ken lay, dennis kozlowski, criminals, glutens of greed and the genius that towered over them, one man has the guts to speak his name.

>> big bird. >> big bird. >> big bird. >> it's me, big bird. >> big, yellow, a nmenace to ou economy. mitt romney knows it's not wall street you have to worry about it's sesame street. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. >> mitt romney taking on our enemies no matter where they nest. >> that is a new ad from the obama campaign, cheekily taking on governor romney's vow to end federal subsidies for pbs. public broadcasting funds support shows including sesame street that provide educational programming for children especially those that cannot afford to go to preschool. the total money going to pbs accounts for roughly .00013% of the federal budget. that's a very small amount. despite utterly nominal amount of money on the table the president has been trumpeting the big bird message since the debate. >> thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. >> governor romney plans to let wall street run wild again but he's going to bring down the

hammer on sesame street. >> elmo has been seen in a white -- in a white suburban. he's driving for the boarder. >> here on the panel after a hellish commute mother jones washington bureau chief david corn author of the book "47%" uncovering the romney video that rocked the 2012 election. it ain't a over but that video did its share of rocking. >> before big bird hit the scene. >> exactly. david, let's talk about the big bird ad. a good thing for team obama to be using or a bad thing? >> you know, i've always been a fan in politics of what i call strategic derision. and this ad made me laugh. i mean, i'm not sure it's the best pivot point at this point in time. i like the ad based on the 47% video, but i'm biased. this may just be, though, i think a little slap that will come and go very fast. i don't think it's going to be the focus of their advertising for the next week or two. you know, it does highlight the

fact that mitt romney keeps talking a big game, you talked earlier about the foreign policy speech with no specifics, just big promises, and the same thing on the deficit and taxes. i'm going to get rid of the deficit, give you tax breaks, without talking about anything specific except, of course, big bird. >> yeah. and what -- it's important to note, you are a master of parody and comedy, the form as it were. sesame workshop has responded to big bird ad. >> official response. >> this qualifies as breaking news. >> i always knew snuff love gus was a republican but -- >> how dare you claim not to be liberals with all your brainwashing. i know how to count because of sesame street because they brainwash. >> let's not denigrate the

importance of sesame street to early childhood education and the role it plans. to john's point, this is kind of -- we have serious issues at hand. >> exactly. >> and the chock is ticking. >> feel like i want to bring in mr. rogers and talk about my feel approximationp we should be talking about education and infrastructure, it is a tiny number but representative of something larger. >> two things to say about this ad, only one good thing, it's not running in any battleground states, only cable bait, and the bad thing to say about it is, it says nothing about anything that is of relevance to real lives to real people. nothing. you can -- we -- it's funny, i like it. president obama making the jokes on stage are -- those are funny lines. >> elmo in the white suburban is a good one. >> the idea that this ad given not just in some pies way -- which is i'm with this is not addressing the big issues we face, it's just for a swing

voters, undecided swing voters if this ad were running they would be like this says nothing to me about anything that matters in my life. >> i will say i think one other good thing about the ad watching big bird go to sleep at night which is the cutest thing that happens. the state of the race, certain amount of hysteria right now about just how well mitt romney is doing and i point to erick erickson writing, i still haven't been able to calculate how many calories mitt romney consumed eating barack obama's lunch that day. i mean, that's pretty amazing. andrew sullivan saying i'm trying to see a silver lining but when a president self-immy lates on live tv and his opponent shines with lies and smiles and a record number of people watch, it's hard to how a president and his party recover. >> i hear the polls have romney up by 67 points today. i think hysteria is a good word and i like andrew sullivan as

much as the next conservative -- not conservative pundit he claims to be. i do think -- you know, in politics you can never extrap plate from a given point. everything is trend lines one way or the other direction. that was a bad night for the president and anybody who wants him to win. but it's not the last point we're going to see on the graph here. we're going to see, you know, two more debates, we're going to see more speeches, may see oscar the grouch get involved, who knows. but so, you know, plenty of time. if mitt romney, you know, could survive three bad weeks after the 47% video, the president can survive a bad debate performance and after the next one, whatever happened in the first time, won't matter. he may not -- he may do worse, may do better but won't matter anymore after the next two debates. >> also, to your point about graphs there is a an interesting graph in t"the new york times"

when incumbents win and when they don't and which way employment is trending. unemployment since the great recession has been trending in the right way and looks like historically he's in the right quadrant of that graph. >> kamall you wrote a eapiece i "the washington post" you reaction after the debate, that just happened. >> which i think actually was the reaction of a lot of people and sort of folks who don't know a lot about dodd/frank or regulatory reform thought that wasn't so good but the hysteria that has built up in the course of the last five weeks -- or last week -- wow. >> yes. >> feels like five sfwheex five weeks in dog years. has been disproportionate to just how bad the president did i think. >> we went up to harlem last week and talked to people about the debates and funny how many people in harlem, black people. >> you don't say? just to be clear. when i say harlem i mean black

people. were like they think obama was doing a rope a dope, that how many -- i think sometimes we get caught in the echo chamber of what we think. a lot of people think this is a plan. >> to lower expectations. >> many people in harlem thought this was the rope a dope. yeah but he forget the dope part. all rope and no dope. >> except they're wrong. you know, look, i agree with david's point, that, you know, trend lines matter, so the reason -- and i think the liberal hysteria is crazy but you look across the swing state polling coming out in the last couple days romney is making up ground. the president had an opportunity to end the election and he didn't end the election. conservatives are more enthused. 75% of the people in the country thought the president lost the debate. in poll after poll. in michigan, the president'ses now ahead by three points, he was ahead by ten a month ago. the pew poll, a huge swing within the same reputable poll. ohio poll that has the president basically running even in ohio, ahead eight points ago.

the election is not over, the president still has advantages in the battleground states but mitt romney has made up ground and as haley barbour said, good gets better and bad gets worse. on the trend line thing -- >> mitt romney disproves that by the fact he was getting worse and worse and now all of a sudden he's turned -- >> that's good after having bad moments as well. >> we have biden coming. >> get your popcorn. >> john to your point, the pew poll is good for mitt romney as nate silver sort of predictor extraordinary arian extraordinari extraordinary says -- >> as nate snas that same piece there is other evidence. if it wasn't for the fact that pennsylvania is closing, ohio is closing, battleground states are closing, you could maybe dismiss the pew poll. mitt romney has made up ground. that's not a reason for liberals to throw themselves off the brooklyn binridge but it's the

case president obama has to it really well. there's 67 million people that watched the last debate more than any obama speech ever, more than watched the debates in 2008 and the number will be bigger next tuesday night because people are going to want to see having heard the urban legend of barack obama getting eaten by an ailey gator whether the president can rise to the challenge. it's a high stakes moment. >> they will probably be looking for a big bird cameo. who comes before president obama, joe biden. coming up, the young gun takes on scranton joe. wonk against populist. great expectations versus the great unknown. you get the idea. we are handicapping thursday's vice presidential debate ahead on "now."

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congressman paul ryan takes a break from the campaign trail for a day of prep in florida while vice president joe biden hunkers down in delaware. >> so joe biden taking no chances with the debates upcoming, taking six days off to prepare. six days off from what? what? >> members of the vice squad be ready for thursday? we will preview thursday's main event next. [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

sometimes the undercard packs a harder punch than the main event. democrats are hoping that's the case on thursday night when joe biden squares off with paul ryan in danville, kentucky. with new polls showing romney on

the heels of the president's subpar performance last week delaware's finest will have to bring his a-game. will had he? paul ryan thinks so. >> he's fast on the cuff, witty guy and doing this for four years. you're not going to rattle joe biden. joe biden has been on the national stage, ran for president twice, sitting vice president. >> ryan's right. biden is no stranger to the national stage or debate stage. >> with regard to my experience, hey, bill, 1979, i was -- i led a delegation of 19 senators negotiating the start agreement with bresh nef, involved in bosnia as the first lady and now senator clinton will tell you, i've been negotiating while you were in congress, man. i introduced the first public financing bill. if you had been around long enough -- maybe i've been around. they forget all the wonderful thing i've done here. but anyway -- >> he also sparred in this ring four years ago when he duked it

out with sarah palin at the university of washington in st. louis in front of 69 million viewers. which biden will show up this week. will it be the funny man? >> editorial in the los angeles times said, in addition to his uncontrolled verbosity, biden is a gaffe machine. can you reassure voters in this country you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage, senator? >> yes. >> thank you, senator biden. >> or will it be the tough scranton joe, the street scrapper with the mean left hook? >> rudy giuliani, there's only three things he mentioned in his sentence a noun and a verb and 9/11. i mean there's nothing else. >> can i respond to that? look the maverick -- let's talk about the maverick john mccain is, i love him, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives. >> as for paul ryan, the debate

stage is [ inaudible ] but if the health summit was any indication we can expect at least a passing glimpse of the welterweight wonk. >> what do i mean when i say that? first year the bill has ten years of tax increases half a trillion dollars, about ten years of medicare cuts half a trillion dollars to pay for six years of spending. >> john heilemann, scranton joe versus the welterweight wonk, you had a masterful profile on joe biden a few weeks ago in "new york" magazine and i want -- what are your expectations as far as biden going into this debate? i could watch old biden debate tape forever. the one liners, asides, god love themes. will we see that a lot? >> i think the vice president is eager for this debate. he was eager for it before and he's been preparing a lot. he's systematically underrated as a debater and one of the things i pointed out in that

piece was, that back in -- really back before you were born -- >> i was only born in 1992 so it's not that far back. >> exactly my point. >> cast back when he took on robert bork, chairman of the senate judiciary committee, one of the intellects of the conservative movement, juris prudence, and stopping him was a great little priority. joe biden people said is an idiot and overmatched and will never stop bob bourque he's not there because joe biden studied hard with a lot of the most leading liberal law professor and figured out what the right arguments were to beat bob bourque. he is good at applied intelligence, he wins most deefts baits he's in, he is unshackled with this debate in a way that the palin debate was problematic for him. they had to prepare him for palin by saying don't condescend her, don't come across like frank sinatra on aing very glass lounge state. you can't -- don't treat her like an idiot, don't treat her

like a girl. all how you hold back. this debate is not like that. this debate i can go at this guy hard on policy and his inclination was to do that before the president's problem in denver, inclination is double that i don't mean personally, he's going to be very substantive and very much driven by numbers and policy contrasts. >> the policy issues are going to be forefrontier because for two years before romney was on the scene, obama was using the ryan budget as his foil, as the stand-in for the eventual republican candidate. why? because it slashes a lot of things that the public likes in terms of education, health research, and it changes medicare, gets rid of the medicare guarantee, makes medicaid more difficult and you're going to see biden be both the pop pew his scrappy guy but the smart fellow from the senate hearings who know the facts and say listen, you tell me you want my 80-year-old granny to start choosing between different, you know, insurance companies when she's in the

middle of a life-threatening illness. that's not -- that's not what's right for the american public. >> i hope he puts it in those terms. the one problem in the presidential debate, too much complicated math in the first ten minutes. trickle down economics does not work, facts support that and voters believe that. just hammer home that message. >> i want to play this choice nugget from the 2008 debate where palin and biden are debating and it really touches on how joe biden is masterful at talking about the common man and his experience. let's take a listen. >> look. >> please. >> all you have to do is go union street and go to katie's restaurant or walk into home depot with me where i spent a lot of time and ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy this administration has made them better off in the last eight years. look, the people in my neighborhood they get it. they get it. they know they've been getting the short end of the stick. so walk with me in my neighborhood. >> i'll note sarah palin is looking down at her notes that entire time.

she did pretty -- at any rate put that experience against paul ryan who looks so much younger and comes across as more of a fee owe fight whether -- neophyte whether that's fair or not in terms on the political stage. >> i want biden to lead into strings as a gaffe machine. if he makes a big enough gaffe it will distract us from the obama bad debate. >> so you're saying -- >> i would like to picture biden greased up wrestling pigs for the debate. want to picture him going all out. >> you need him to lower the bar for -- >> nobody gaffes like him and recovers from gaffes like him. >> he said unchained in front of black people. >> be fair, i mean he has a touch, he has -- he can commun not only with minorities, working-class voters, elderly voters, he has that mojo. >> ryan is an intellectual policy guy who loves libertarian

theory and doesn't always bring it home. he's good with the white board. you have two different approaches here. and, you know, ryan making a connection the way that biden does, i think is a challenge for him. >> but the expectation -- i will say cnn poll last week asked voters who's going to win the presidential debate 55% say ryan, 39% say biden. is that because they think ryan is going to go less wonk or biden more gaffe? >> the broad perception, biden underrated. showing him without his shirt on washing his transam in the white house driveway. he is a gaffe machine, a guy easy to make fun of. dave letterman, the jokes, joe biden is a goofy, slightly drunk, kind of dumb uncle, right? they think of paul ryan -- most people haven't been exposed to paul ryan. they hear paul ryan is that intellectual young whipper snapper and that's all people are reacting to there. two things that are important, one is -- >> really? >> wow.

>> do not -- >> important to your mind. >> no. this will be important to all of our viewers. do not if you're going to have a drinking game at this debate do not make the drinking game based on the number of times biden says the word literally. everyone will have alcohol poisoning by the end. just as a piece of atmospherics i love about debate camp what happens at debate camp they have a debate stage, this is like -- the obama people are serious about this. the debate stage that biden is debating on right now, is constructed to be a perfect replica of the actual debate stage, everything from the materials that are used, the colors, the sizes, the temperature in the room, is identical in that room as it will be in danville, kentucky, on thursday night. this was the case back four years ago too. why the obama campaign laughed so much when the biden campaign was doing their -- debate prep in this perfectly sealed environment, they would look on tv and see sarah palin standing out by a stream in arizona or a rock and tree and these guys cannot be serious. >> it also -- they can't use the

altitude defense that al gore was offering the president, the air was too thin up there, and he wasn't used to it. anyway, after the break, the national rifle association dips its toe into the attack ad waters taking on president obama, but while groups like the nra and their endorsements and dollars to the presidential campaign are donating their dollars to the presidential campaign, the more influential cash may be flowing down ballot. we will look at the big spenders next on "now." gecko (clearing throat) thank you, mr. speaker, uh, members of congress. in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents! ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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so i know how important that is. mountains of debt, threats to our sovereignty, chipping away at your rights, chipping away at your freedom, and now they're attacking our second amendment rights. but you can stop them. right now, defend freedom, defeat obama. >> that is a new ad from the nra attacking president obama nearly one week after the group endorsed mitt romney for

president. it is by our rough count example number 1 billion of outside groups trying to sway the race. the most tangible effect of the outside cash fiesta may be felt down ballot as the election approaches super pacs are making a run to influence which party controls congress. outside groups have spent at least $39 million on general election house races, almost seven times what they had spent by this time two years ago. perhaps the biggest surprise, democrats are more than holding their own. david, the down ballot stuff, we have been paying attention to the top of the ticket, but it is a big deal. republicans outside groups, $19.8 million spent on these house races, democrats, $18 million. you know, it's the untold story of this election. >> getting down, is the untold story of this election, you're right. but the thing is, though, we see what's happening now, but the way this works best is when these super pacs come in, with a

week or less left, sometimes in races where they haven't been involved and so, you know, typical house race, may have a couple hundred thousand dollars in spending and you come in with a million dollar ad buy or $500,000 ad buy at the end and the other side can't respond in time and you don't know who's sponsoring it it can skew things at the end. i know a lot of democratic candidates -- i think there's more of a risk of that happening to democrats than republicans are still very nervous about the rush at the end. >> i'm shocked that you can even spend that much money on a down ballot house race. how do you spend $3.1 million in ohio? >> you buy every radio ad you can in the district. >> florida district, 18, alan west's district, $2.4 million in these type my districts, millions of dollars getting pumped? >> those are still pretty big media markets. those are all states where you're talking about -- >> california and -- >> buying a lot of tv and radio

inventory in districts that are not kentucky. i mean california, florida, ohio, those are big. you still pay high prices. >> the question is, to what degree does this become status quo, seven times more than they were spending two years ago? the question of money and politics is one that we are going to be turning over a lot and, of course, you still have these donors like sheldon adelson who gave $36.3 million to the gop thus far. jonas eron in the times what feels different now is the sums are so large and that it has the potential to influence not only the presidential candidates but candidates as well. dch. >> i'm starting to suspect maybe money in politics is bad. >> yeah. >> just all this evidence -- it's starting to make me think maybe there should be so much money in politics. i'm crazy from san francisco. >> a glimmer, a glimmer there. >> i'm starting to really get a -- just, i don't know, be i'm crazy. >> there is george soros son on

a super pac. do we have financial reform ever happening? >> financial reform no -- >> campaign finance reform. >> probably not. george soros having a lot of money against liberals yes. we can hope for that. >> we'll see. after the break she prosecutes adults on tv but an advocate for children in real life. bridget moynahan about education and her hit series "blue bloods" is coming up next. [ horn honks ] [ male announcer ] you start your day... love you, too. ...thinking about what's important to you -- your family... ...the mortgage... the kids' college tuition. [ cellphone ringing ] but life insurance? [ horn honking ] life is unpredictable. that's why at fidelity life we want you to think about term life insurance --

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oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. actress bridget moynahan

stars in "blue bloods" but over camera has a role helping to promote early childhood education among low income children. i asked her about her work with jump start. >> they tend to go to preschool and then kinder gart wherein some of the kids in lower income don't go to preschool for sure and certainly some cases don't go to kindergarten so they're entering the school pool years behind. you know, some of the kids don't know the alphabet, don't know their numbers so once you start behind you tend to stay behind and i think there's a strange concept of thinking that preschool is like a day care and it really shouldn't be considered that. we should look at how it's building the blocks of learning and listening and education taking you forward. >> and the cognitive skills you're developing there should no, not be brushed away. these are foundational lessons that kids are learning. children of professionals are

exposed to 1500 more words hourly than children growing up in poverty. this speaks to the economics that are in play here and why it's critical that we make early childhood education accessible to federal reserve across the income spectrum. tell us what jump start does? >> jump start goes into communities that need it and helps out in the schools with early literacy, teaching, you know, helping them learn how to read and phonics and really helping the schools and the families that need it. >> you can see more of my interview with bridget moynihan on our blog now.msnbc.com. that is almost all for us today. i think i have 30 seconds left in which i can talk about kamall's upcoming season which is -- where are you time wise? >> 11:30 on thursdays on fx after russell brand. >> that is huge. >> yes. >> that is huge. i wish -- well, russell --

never. i was going to make a joke about russell brand being on our channel but it would have fallen flat. still have 30 seconds. want to talk about the jack welch. do we have that confirmed? i don't know that we do. jack welch may have resigned -- >> we don't have it confirmed. >> this is how we do things on fx. >> tweet about it right. >> i read the story. a story in fortune that says jack welch has resigned from his columnist job at fortune and reuters in the wake of the conspira his conspiracy tweet. >> it appears that he -- appears he was miffed about the fact that those publications wrote stories critical of what he had said. >> i wrote a critical story. sister publication. >> just for the record was totally insane. >> totally insane conspiracy theory, one of many floating out there. the repercussions -- >> also in the same piece asked to see obama's birth certificate. >> yes.

>> i think his college records he's looking for now. >> how will jack welch pay the represent now? >> we're all worried. >> i'm sure you'll be taking up jobbers and birthers in your -- >> just become 47%. >> i am open to take that job if they need someone. >> thank you to my panel, john, rana, kamal and david's ebook, "47% uncovering the romney video that rocked the election." available now. noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific when joined by professor michael dyson, "new york times" hugo lin gren and steve kornacki. until then find us at facebook.com/now with alex. andrea mitchell reports is next. and you learned something along the way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain;

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begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- how real is the bounce? exactly four weeks from election day, mitt romney leads president obama fors the first time in some post-debate polls. romney's biggest gains in michigan andmo